Last newsletter I cagily hinted at something "BIG" in regards to the Davy Jones 'Boot Legs' project. Those of you who pre-ordered already know but for the uninformed it's that Saustex is launching a new imprint for lathe-cut (well, actually embossed) sound artifacts called Wacky Souvenir.

I've borrowed Glenn's Facebook post about the genesis of the tune:

"My late, great brother Davy was, to put it mildly, a tremendous character - Pennsylvania Texican, loud, talented artist/cartoonist, profane, hilarious, guitar blasting rocker, opinionated as hell, possessed of an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and the blues and all of their Deep South/New Orleans roots, a hippy cow punk totally singular, iconic - Dude. He passed from cancer on Thanksgiving eve in 2015. I still miss him terribly, and think of him every single day. When he died, there were literally thousands of posts/likes/emails - I’m still amazed at how many lives/people he touched. Those of you who never got to meet him, I wish to hell you had. You’d have gotten a tremendous kick out of him. 

So rewind to early 2014. I didn’t know it yet, but my 3 decade climb up the corporate ladder was nearing its end. A very traumatic abrupt end. This southern boy was, of all places, in Metrowest Massachusetts - homesick, freezing, working at a nightmare impossible job stressed out of my mind, drinking like a crazy man (which is exactly what i was at the time), marriage unraveling, and missing my family. A total fish out of water. My once all-consuming musical life had devolved to hosting house concerts once a quarter for the old folks at our condo community room. One day, out of the blue, I sat down and penned this song for Davy, totally on a whim, hadn’t written anything in a year before that probably. A few weeks later, another unplanned whim, booked an afternoon in a friend of a friend’s studio. A few fun hours, and 'Song for David J' was born. 

Hearing it out loud made me feel really good, it was important to me, in that, even before my life crashed and burned, it reminded me that I’m a songwriter, and reminded me how much I loved music, and how deep down to the core I’d missed it. (And I was still a DAMNED good bass player!). A few months after the recording, Davy was diagnosed with the lung cancer that would slowly take his life the following year. Visiting Austin in the fall of 2014, when Davy and girlfriend Rebecca got to hear the song and bopped to it, is a memory I’ll cherish forever. Davy didn’t have a lot to smile about by then, but I got a big grin out of him!"

Glenn thought that everyone had forgotten about the song but I had not. It's f'in great! So, I was thrilled when he agreed to allow me to release it via Saustex/Wacky Souvenir. He did both Davy and himself proud on the tune.

(Be sure to check out some of the rest of Glenn's catalog while you are there!)

Given that this was my first “production” run, limited to 75 copies (well, 76 actually - I discovered I had made that many covers when I got down to numbering them) , there is a lot of variance - I guess that’s part of the game and the charm. It took quite a bit of time, wasted materials and experimentation to bring it to this stage but I feel pretty confident that I will continue to get better results on all fronts. 

There's about ten of them left available as part of the Davy Jones 'Boot Legs' box-set pre-order. See the section below for details.

In the last newsletter I provided an update regarding 'Boot Legs' - the Davy Jones box set, and although it's not yet at the manufacturer I expect to be able to send it off inside the next couple of weeks. There are a lot of moving parts. Old tapes have been baked, remixed and remastered. Extensive listening and selection is ongoing. But, I can say without reservation I believe it will be great with maybe 60% of the material having never been officially released and the other 40% either long out-of-print or having never been released on vinyl.

Again, the box set will include at least three LPs including Davy's work with the Ideals, Hickoids, Dicks and more than a half-dozen other artists - a booklet and I'm not sure what all else at this point- - I'm sure it will represent a net loss from my end but I am honor bound to make it happen and have the money set aside to do it. And, I'm still expecting a delivery date around August 31, 2021.

Because of the rapidly changing postage and customs duties collections situations globally I'm only able to offer the pre-order for the USA currently. I hope to come up with a cost-conscious solution to satisfy overseas demand before the release.

I've raised the pre-order price slightly (to account for shipping the lathe-cut referenced in the pervious section) and that will include the advance shipment of the lathe-cut. Once the lathe-cut has sold through the pre-order price will remain the same, and I imagine it will go up another $10 or so before the actual release.

In the last edition of the newsletter I mentioned that we were awaiting the shipment of physical stock from the EU - good news - it's all in house and ready to go. Because I have my machinery set up a little better than the folks at C.I.A. and it's more in the wheelhouse of my daily routine they'd rather have me fulfill the North American orders so Saustex is offering the CD and LP at a 10% discount to their asking price (well actually about 12% on the CD.)

All orders placed through Saustex will immediately receive a code for unlimited streaming the entire 39 track project AND download in your preferred digital audio format.